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Frédéric Arnault has been named as managing director of one of the holding companies through which the Arnault family controls luxury goods group LVMH, the latest in a series of promotions for the 29-year-old.
The fourth of LVMH chief executive and chair Bernard Arnault’s five children, Frédéric Arnault will replace Nicolas Bazire as managing director of Financière Agache, the family holding confirmed.
The billionaire Arnault family owns 48 per cent of LVMH’s share capital and controls 64 per cent of the voting rights at the world’s largest luxury goods group. The group owns 80 brands including Louis Vuitton, Dior and jeweller Tiffany, spanning fashion and leather goods to champagne, department stores and hotels.
Frédéric Arnault’s promotion comes after he was recently named chief executive of LVMH Watches. Frédéric and his brother Alexandre, 32, were also appointed to the LVMH board in April, joining their two older siblings. All five children have roles within the luxury group and only the youngest, Jean, does not yet have a board seat.
All changes in the roles of the five children are closely scrutinised for signs of who might one day succeed the group’s 75-year-old patriarch. However, Bernard Arnault has indicated he has no intention of stepping back any time soon, and the group two years ago increased the age limit for the chief executive role at LVMH to 80.
Behind the scenes, however, the CEO is carefully laying the groundwork for succession at the €400bn company by placing his children in key positions — a process that has increased in pace since the start of 2023. He also recently reshuffled his top external managers in order to set up a generational handoff among the top executives that work alongside the family.
Bernard Arnault’s eldest child Delphine, 49, was appointed chief executive of Dior — the group’s second-biggest brand by sales after Louis Vuitton — at the start of 2023, and sits on LVMH’s executive committee. Antoine, 46, is in charge of image and sustainability at the group, and was also named chief executive of Christian Dior SE — another family holding company above LVMH — at the end of 2022.
Alexandre, 32, is a senior executive at jeweller Tiffany & Co, which LVMH acquired for about $16bn in 2020. In addition to his new role at Financière Agache, Frédéric was promoted to chief executive of LVMH’s watches division earlier this year, overseeing a clutch of brands, from a previous role as chief executive of Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer. And Jean, the youngest at 25, runs watchmaking at Louis Vuitton.
Outside the family, the group’s managing director Antonio Belloni, 69, stepped down after 23 years as Bernard Arnault’s right hand in April, replaced by Stéphane Bianchi, formerly LVMH’s head of watches and jewellery, who is a veteran of family succession at French cosmetics group Yves Rocher.
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